The specialty box office is looking wild this weekend with an eclectic programming mix as festival darlings and a boy band try some Super Bowl LX counterprogramming.
Alexander Skarsgård-starring Pillion, Oscar-nominated Sirāt and Cannes prize-winning The President’s Cake join Japan’s highest-grossing local live-action film Kokuho in limited release. A Stray Kids concert film has been adding showtimes, the Winter Olympics is playing at 150 AMC theaters, and there are handful of wide-release indies from Markiplier’s self-distributed phenomenon Iron Lung to Whistle, Solo Mio and Dracula.
Cannes-premiering Pillion, A24’s erotic comedy drama by British writer-director Harry Lighton, opens on four screens in New York (Lincoln Square, Angelika Film Center) and Los Angeles (AMC Grove, AMC Century City). Harry Melling stars as a timid man who is swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker (Skarsgård) takes him on as his submissive. Based on the 2020 novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, it’s Certified Fresh at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, see Deadline review. Won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay and four BIFA awards including Best Independent British Film and Best Debut Screenwriter. BAFTA-nominated for Outstanding British Film, Outstanding Debut (for Lighton) and Outstanding Adapted Screenplay. Pillion will screen next week at the reopening of San Francisco’s Castro Theatre with a special premiere. Ahead of release, the film has played sold-out advance screenings nationwide including Outfest in partnership with local LGBTQ+ organizations.
Neon opens Oliver Laxe’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner Sirāt at the Film Society at Lincoln Center and IFC Center in NY and the Nuart and AMC Burbank in LA. Oscar nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound. A father (Sergi López) and his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco searching for their daughter and sister Mar. With hope fading, they venture deeper into the burning wilderness, confronting their own limits. At 93% Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh, see Deadline review.
Sony Pictures Classics The President’s Cake debuts limited release in New York and LA at the Angelika, AMC Empire and Laemmle Royal. Written & directed by Hasan Hadi, the film won both the Caméra d’Or (best first feature) and the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award when it premiered at Cannes. See Deadline review. It was the first Iraqi film shortlisted for an Oscar Best International Feature. As the people of 1990s Iraq struggle to survive war and food shortages, the President requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid it, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates and must use her wits and imagination to gather the ingredients. Stars Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, Waheeda Thabet, Sajad Mohamad Qasem.
Mamoru Hosoda’s time-bending animated adventure Scarlet, also from Sony Pictures Classics, opens as an Imax exclusive at 160 theatres. The story of a medieval-era, sword-fighting princess on a dangerous quest to avenge the death of her father world premiered at Venice before making its North American and New York debuts at TIFF and NYFF.
GKids is out with Kokuho by Sang-il Lee on 3 screens in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto (Angelika Film Center in NY, AMC Universal Citywalk in LA & Cineplex Yonge-Dundas in Toronto) this weekend before expanding nationally on February 20. Japan’s highest grossing live action film of all time, and its has been Oscar nominated for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. Written by Satoko Okudera, it stars Ken Watanabe, Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryusei Yokohama, Mitsuki Takahata. In Nagasaki in 1964, after the death of his father, who is the leader of a yakuza gang, 14-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wing of a famous kabuki actor.
Kino Lorber’s family drama Jimpa starring Olivia Colman, John Lithgow and newcomer Aud Mason-Hyde debuts on 7 screens including Quad Cinema in New York and Laemmle Monica, Laemmle Town Center and AMC Orange in Los Angeles, expanding Feb. 13. Hyde co-wrote with Matthew Cormack. Premiered at Sundance 2025, see Deadline review. Colman’s Hannah is a filmmaker still coming to terms with a father, Jimpa (Lithgow), who left the family years before to find a new life as a gay man in Amsterdam. She takes her trans nonbinary teenager Frances to visit him and, when Frances expresses a desire to stay for a year, Hannah must reconsider her parenting beliefs and navigate her child and her father.
IFC opens Whistle by The Nun director Corin Hardy on 1,200 screens. Owen Egerton adapted the screenplay from his own short story. A misfit group of high school students stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle and soon discover the terrifying sound it emits will summon evil. As the body count rises, the friends investigate the origins of the deadly artifact in a desperate effort to stop the horrifying chain of events they have set in motion. Stars Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Sky Yang, Percy Hynes White and Nick Frost.
Bleecker Street’s new event label Crosswalk is out with its first release, Stray Kids: The The dominATE Experience from LiveNation Studios, a concert film of the global K-Pop sensation’s sold-out performances at SoFi Stadium. Playing 1,724 theaters including all premium formats. A Wednesday early access showing on about 350 Imax screens did a nice $900k. Brisk presales overall saw theaters expand from just four shows, adding days and locations.
NBC’s daily live daytime coverage of the Olympic games will again include cinema starting with the Opening Ceremony of Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at more than 150 AMC theaters nationwide. From February 6-22, movie theater coverage will include figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, hockey, speed skating and more. AMC has been showcasing a promotional trailer (below) highlighting NBCUniversal’s coverage. This expanded partnership builds on the theatrical presentation of the 2024 Paris Olympics, when approximately 110 AMC locations screened live coverage throughout the Games.
Noting that IFC Center in New York is starting a weeklong encore run of documentary Road Of Fire with 100% of ticket sales going to support NYC immigration organizations. The benefit run includes special moderated screenings Saturday and Sunday. The venue said it’s bringing back the doc by Nathaniel Lezra in response to escalating attacks on immigrant communities to raise awareness and funds for local organizations in New York City.
“We’ve been deeply concerned about the escalating attacks on immigrant communities,” said Lezra. “These are the same communities whose stories we documented in the film–people whose lives are too often reduced to headlines. This is a chance to stand with them in a meaningful way.” His film explores the $35 billion human-smuggling trade, tracking three intersecting storylines: a cartel smuggler crossing the Darién Gap, a family undertaking a dangerous migration route, and a young mother and asylum seeker in New York City.